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Friday, 19 February 2016

Review | The Years Of Loving You ~ Ella Harper

When Molly is diagnosed with a life changing illness, it feels like her whole world has come crashing down. She hopes the news will make her marriage to Sam stronger. But why does Molly always call Ed in a crisis?

Ed. The very same Ed that Molly fell in love with at a party when they were teenagers, underneath a star filled sky. Then life took them in different directions.

Molly starts to question every decision she's ever made.

What if they could turn back the clock?

When the only certainty they shared was each other....

I've been so eager to read The Years Of Loving You ever since I first clapped my eyes on it - I mean, just look at how beautiful the cover is!

I'm a huge fan of Ella Harper's work, some of you may know her under the name of Sasha Wagstaff and whilst I've not read any of those novels, Ella's début book under this name completely drew me in back last year - you can read my review of Pieces of You here.

The Years of Loving You tells the story of Molly and Ed, whom one night, years ago, met and fell in love after spending a night under the stars, talking, sharing poetry and their dreams of Molly becoming a painter - Ed a novelist, locking lips and finishing each other's sentences - pure romance at its best. There was an instant attraction between the pair but for one reason or another they just couldn't admit their feelings to each other.

Life just got in the way as it does. Ed has a secret and although he trust Molly with his life, its just too painful to share and when that secret comes to a painful end, Ed is at a loss and decides to take the advice of his friend, Boyd, and do some travelling - that's not before writing all his locked in feelings for Molly down into a heartfelt letter and arranging for Molly to join him a few weeks later. She never did and it was never discussed.

During Ed's months away, Molly never heard from him and pushed herself to move her life forward by marrying Sam, and Ed presumed that Molly didn't feel the same way as he did for her and flitted from one fling to another looking for that missing thing he had with Molly.

Over time and as the years passed by, the pair kept their love for each other hidden - yet something pulled them together every time something major in their loves happened, so when Molly gets her diagnosis it's Ed, not Sam she really turns to.

The Years of Loving You was a truly beautiful story about two friends, near lovers and miss-timings, showing just what can happen when you let the one you love get away.

Ella Harper told their story wonderfully with chapters of 'Now' where Molly and Ed deal with her illness, and chapters of 'Molly and Ed' 'Molly' and 'Ed' which reflect back to when they met and poignant times in their individual paths but when they needed each other.

I loved Molly and Ed's characters - they were very real and their lives seemed very normal as if it was a couple that lived in your area and ones that faced real problems.

The Years of Loving You was a heart warming book of life long friendship yet had a sadness to it as both characters clearly wanted to be with each other - the way the book has been left has got me wondering what has happened to them now - I'd love to see a small novella of Molly and Ed - a few years later.